`Moz And Cat', coming from a director of great repute, ends up as a feel-nothing movie, that tries too hard to find a way into your heart. In its frantic attempts to strike a chord with the viewers, the movie appears maddeningly disjointed with an relatively not-so-believable premise and more than usual melodrama, to end up as a letdown.
Scripted and directed by veteran Fazil, the movie is all about Moss D Samuel (Dileep) a fun loving conman who lives with Tessy, a nine year old kid, lovingly called as Cat ,(baby Nivedhitha) who is more than a sister and friend to him. Both these orphans, daily hatches some mischievous plans to earn the day's meal. Amidst one such encounter they collides with Nandhana, a happy go lucky millionaire, who is at the city from Bangalore to tame her only brother Sumesh, entrapped with narcotics and a deal of death.
Nandhana (AswathyAshok) takes the presence of `Moz And Cat' as a chance to bring back her drug addict brother to safety of their family and realities of life. With the help of dangerous but intelligent plans hatched by Moz, they take on Panakkal Das (Manoj K Jayan), the customary villain who is there to destroy Sumesh and his fortunes.
`Moz And Cat' does have some mildly amusing moments in the former half, but the story seems to have gone out of control and just swells out. The movie floats on a safe pace till the interval, but there after half a dozen flashback stories suggesting the groundwork of affairs, and successive overly melodramatic sequences turns it weak and complicated, making a stark departure from the characteristic Fazil design. Thereafter, within a few minutes it turns out to become a structural mess, with the efforts to built suspense or tension, laying flat with bizarre, inflated moments, that is hardly stimulating or engaging.
Though the narratives are not easily predictable, the lack of good plot gears and very familiar screen ploys destroys the soul of the movie, if any. The song sung by and visualized on Jagathy and other comedians that pops out in the later half is also an ineffectual exercise that ends up as a torture .The veteran film maker seems to be not in the best of his days, in story telling and his flawed direction in a regrettable finale, that very well topple down to tumbles, seals the inevitable destruction.
In the acting front ''Baby Nivedhitha'' deserves laurels for her timing and brilliance onscreen while debutante Ashwathy Ashok also shows promises of tomorrow's star material. Dileep excels with his soft numbers in the former half, but doesn't have much to essay in the later proceedings. Rahman does have good screen presence, but his dubbing takes the grace off the character. All others in the cast are in their regular roles without much meat to capture our imagination.
Technically `Moz And Cat' is not a shoddy film, though the editing by Goury Shankaran and camera by Aanandhakuttan doesn't offer much more than the regular stuff. Ouseppachan in the music department comes with a couple of lilting hummable tunes that comes as a relief.
Fazil, as usual, has taken his time to design and decorate his lead star's attires and dress codes that are sure to grab the attention of masses and will become the fashion statement in the next few months. And thus the movie's name will stay in the memory of keralites for a little long than usual, for all the wrong reasons than for the entertainment that it provides.
